Anamarc embezzlement lawsuit settled

The sister and brother-in-law of the owners of the bankrupt Anamarc College have agreed to repay a portion of the more than $450,000 that the couple is accused of embezzling from the school, which abruptly closed its three campuses last year, recently filed court documents show.

The FBI in summer 2014, raided two of Anamarc's campuses and the Upper Valley home of the school's owners as part of an investigation of the school. FBI officials have not reported on that investigation since the raids occurred.

Under the settlement, the couple will pay $300,000, plus interest, and court costs. However, they can satisfy the court judgment against them for $150,000, if they pay that amount within 18 months, court documents show.

Diaz and Piña did not admit or deny the alleged embezzlement in the settlement. The couple's Houston lawyer was not available for comment Friday.

In 2012, Diaz signed a statement acknowledging that he inappropriately took money from the school and promised to repay the money if Anamarc did not press charges, previously filed court documents show.

Anamarc's owners, Ana Maria Piña Houde and her husband, Marc Houde, filed a lawsuit against Diaz in March 2013, and in August 2013, three days before a jury trial in the case was scheduled to start, Diaz filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Houston, which delayed the trial, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial in December. But the trustee determined the costs and risks of continuing the case made a settlement the best choice for Anamarc and its creditors, including hundreds of students, seeking money from the bankruptcy estate, according to court documents.

Anamarc's owners had no say in the settlement because its bankruptcy filing turned over control of Anamarc assets and school matters, including the lawsuit, to the trustee.

Collecting the judgment against the couple might not be easy because Diaz and his wife showed no assets available to creditors, including Anamarc, in their bankruptcy filing, said Robert Feuille, an El Paso lawyer representing the Chapter 7 trustee in the Anamarc settlement. Feuille had represented Anamarc prior to its bankruptcy filing.

In previously filed court documents, Anamarc's owners alleged that the couple wire transferred, much, if not all, of the allegedly embezzled money to numerous bank accounts in Mexico.

That makes getting the money virtually impossible, Feuille said.

The incentive for the couple to pay the settlement is for them to "get rid of us at a cheap price," Feuille said. It does not exempt them from possible future criminal prosecution, but the couple could possibly use paying the settlement as a way to ward off prosecution, he said.

Anamarc's owners in their lawsuit accused Diaz of stealing $600,000 from the school over several years when he was in charge of student accounts, and that Piña, who also worked at the school as a registrar, participated in the embezzlement. A later audit lowered the amount, Feuille said.

Piña is the sister of Piña Houde, the school owner.

The school at one time had more than 1,200 students at two El Paso campuses and one in Santa Teresa. It offered courses and degrees in several medical-related fields.

Anamarc's largest unsecured debts when it filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2014 were more than $898,000 owed to students, and more than $200,000 owed to the school's employees.

Court documents do not indicate that any of those debts have been paid.

If money is paid in the settlement, it would go to pay off creditors, Feuille said. Secured creditors get paid first in a bankruptcy case.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421; @vickolenc on Twitter.